Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC)
The ECAC is one of five conferences that competes in NCAA Division I women's hockey and one of four conferences that awards an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The ECAC has chosen to award its automatic bid to the champion of its conference tournament. With 12 members, the ECAC is the largest conference in Division I women's college hockey. The ECAC is also home to the six Ivy League programs that play Division I college hockey, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. Though these six teams are considered "the Ivy League," they do not play a separate schedule with their regular ECAC games doubling as their Ivy League games. The Ivy League awards a championship at the end of the season to the team with the best record in Ivy League games, but this championship does not have any implications for the ECAC conference title or participation in the NCAA tournament. Teams Past Members * Colby Mules (1998-1999) * Boston College Eagles (1998-2001) * Maine Black Bears (1998-2001) * New Hampshire Wildcats (1998-2001) * Niagara Purple Eagles (1998-2001 * Northeastern Huskies (1998-2001) * Providence Friars (1998-2001) * Vermont Catamounts (1998-2005) Regular Season Format Every ECAC team plays every other team twice, once home, and once away, for a total of 22 games. Each ECAC team is paired with a "travel partner" and both teams will play the same opponents on opposite days each weekend. The travel partners are as follows. * Brown and Yale * Colgate and Cornell * Clarkson and St. Lawrence * Dartmouth and Harvard * Princeton and Quinnipiac * RPI and Union So, for example, when Colgate and Cornell travel to play Clarkson and St. Lawrence, the matchups may be Colgate vs. Clarkson and Cornell vs. St. Lawrence on Friday and Colgate vs. St. Lawrence and Cornell vs. Clarkson on Saturday. The "rivalry games" between travel partners occur at various points of the season. The ECAC awards 2 points for a win and 1 point for a tie following a five minute overtime. There are no shootouts and overtime losses garner no points. The standings are listed in order of most to least points with the following tiebreakers in order: # Head to head play (record only, excluding goals) # Wins # Record vs. the top four teams # Record vs. the top eight teams # Goal differential in head to head play # Goal differential vs. the top four teams # Goal differential vs. the top eight teams The ECAC does not list detailed steps for breaking a tie between three or more teams but it can be inferred that the tiebreaking procedures continue until one or more teams are eliminated and then restart with the remaining teams until there is only one team left. Current Standings as of 2/17/2019 1, 2, etc. - Clinched seed h - Clinched home quarterfinal series x - Clinched tournament spot Tournament Format The top eight teams in the standings at the end of the season make the ECAC tournament. The tournament will pair #1 vs. #8, #2 vs. #7, #3 vs. #6, and #4 vs. #5 for a best of three series quarterfinals at the home of the better seed. The semifinals and finals are single-elimination and played at the home of the team that finished with the top seed in the regular season. The teams are "reseeded" after the first round in that the lowest advancing seed will play the highest advancing seed and the middle advancing seeds will play one another. The tournament semifinals and finals will be at the home of the top seed even if that team does not advance needed.